Category Archives: Gene Medicine

Inscripta and Hunterian pioneer new program to provide access to novel CRISPR enzymes for biotherapeutic development

BOULDER, Colo. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass., October 12, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Inscripta, Inc., the digital genome engineering company, today announced that it has granted a non-exclusive license to Hunterian Medicine, a gene-editing and gene therapy company, for access to the MAD7 nuclease, one of several CRISPR nucleases in Inscriptas MADzymes family of enzymes. Inscripta has introduced a new commercial licensing model for biopharma companies that further democratizes access to CRISPR-based gene-editing.

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Under the terms of its license, Hunterian will have the right to use the MAD7 nuclease or improved MADzyme nucleases in its gene-editing programs to develop human therapeutics. This complements Hunterians proprietary technology that enables in vivo delivery of CRISPR via a single adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector.

Hunterian is the first biopharmaceutical organization to license the MAD7 nuclease under Inscriptas commercial licensing program. Inscripta originally released the MAD7 nuclease free for academic and commercial R&D in 2017. Todays announcement represents an extension of Inscriptas licensing program to expand access to CRISPR and address limitations in CRISPR-based therapeutic development and commercialization.

"The vast therapeutic potential of gene-editing has one primary barrier: Delivery. Hunterian solved this problem by enabling CRISPR systems to fit inside a single AAV, the gold standard for gene delivery," said Dr. Vinny Jaskula-Ranga, President and CEO of Hunterian Medicine. "Inscripta is similarly reducing barriers to innovation by providing access to its MAD7 nuclease and other improved MADzyme nucleases. For therapeutic indications, MAD7 is a particularly important alternative to commonly used Cas9 nucleases given that it has significantly fewer off-target effects."

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"Gene-editing has demonstrated vast potential for breakthrough innovation in multiple industries. We see incredible opportunity and potential for CRISPR in therapeutic applications; however, we constantly hear biopharma companies talk about limitations in their access," said Sri Kosaraju, President and CEO of Inscripta. "By providing more flexible access to MADzyme nucleases to companies such as Hunterian, Inscripta believes that we can help drive scientific progress and expand the use of CRISPR across more application areas and industries in the bioeconomy. We look forward to working with Hunterian to enable their AAV-based gene-editing programs to address significant unmet medical needs."

About MADzymes

Inscripta developed the Madagascar family of nucleases ("MADzymes") and released the MAD7 nuclease in December 2017 to both commercial and academic researchers without licensing fees or reach-through royalties for most applications to improve access to CRISPR. Royalty-bearing commercial licenses apply only in a few scenarios where the MAD7 nuclease is used on a continuous basis for manufacturing or if a product physically contains the MAD7 nuclease. Since 2017, the MAD7 nuclease has been adopted widely, and multiple publications detail the use of MAD7 in microbes, plants, mammalian cell lines, stem cells, and animal models. Inscripta continues to innovate and find new and improved MADzyme nucleases, including higher-fidelity MAD7 nuclease variants, and is licensing the MAD7 nuclease commercially, including licensing for therapeutic uses in gene and cell therapy. For more information about licensing MADzymes, please visit inscripta.com/mad7.

About Inscripta

Inscripta is a life science technology company enabling scientists to solve some of todays most pressing challenges with the first benchtop system for genome editing. The companys automated Onyx platform, consisting of an instrument, consumables, assays, and software, makes CRISPR-based genome engineering of microbes accessible to any research lab. Inscripta supports its customers around the world from facilities in Boulder, Colo.; San Diego and Pleasanton, Calif.; and Copenhagen, Denmark. To learn more, visit Inscripta.com and follow @InscriptaInc.

About Hunterian Medicine

Hunterian Medicine, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a laboratory in the LifeBridge Health BioIncubator in Baltimore, Maryland, is a pre-clinical gene-editing and gene therapy company working to cure genetic diseases using its innovative in vivo delivery technology, which can deliver the commonly used SpCas9, high-fidelity variants, Cas12a, PAM variants and many other systems through a single adeno-associated virus (AAV). The companys platform technology provides a solution to the AAV gene delivery problem for key areas of (1) CRISPR gene-editing and (2) gene therapy applications. The company is developing a pipeline of gene-editing and gene therapy therapeutics to address diseases of significant unmet need. For more information, please visit http://www.hunterian.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211012005273/en/

Contacts

For Inscripta, Inc.Tim Ingersolltim@bioscribe.com 619-871-3769

For Hunterian Medicine LLCMark Buttonmark@markbutton.info 408-310-2168

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Hunterian Medicine Licenses Inscriptas MAD7 Nuclease to Advance Gene Editing Research and Development - Yahoo Finance

News Release

Monday, October 11, 2021

NIH-funded research reveals clinical trial candidate for those with genetic risk.

A commonly available oral diuretic pill approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may be a potential candidate for an Alzheimers disease treatment for those who are at genetic risk, according to findings published in Nature Aging. The research included analysis showing that those whotook bumetanide a commonly used and potent diuretic had a significantly lower prevalence of Alzheimers disease compared to those not taking the drug. The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, advances a precision medicine approach for individuals at greater risk of the disease because of their genetic makeup.

The research team analyzed information in databases of brain tissue samples and FDA-approved drugs, performed mouse and human cell experiments, and explored human population studies to identify bumetanide as a leading drug candidate that may potentially be repurposed to treat Alzheimers.

Though further tests and clinical trials are needed, this research underscores the value of big data-driven tactics combined with more traditional scientific approaches to identify existing FDA-approved drugs as candidates for drug repurposing to treat Alzheimers disease, said NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, M.D.

Knowing that one of the most significant genetic risk factors for late-onset Alzheimers is a form of the apolipoprotein E gene called APOE4, researchers analyzed data derived from 213 brain tissue samples and identified the Alzheimers gene expression signatures, the levels to which genes are turned on or off, specific to APOE4 carriers. Next, they compared the APOE4-specific Alzheimers signatures against those of more than 1,300 known FDA-approved drugs. Five drugs emerged with a gene expression signature that the researchers believed might help neutralize the disease. The strongest candidate was bumetanide, which is used to treat fluid retention often caused by medical problems such as heart, kidney, and liver disease.

The researchers validated the data-driven discoveries by testing bumetanide in both mouse models of Alzheimers and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human neurons. Researchers found that treating mice which expressed the human APOE4 gene reduced learning and memory deficits. The neutralizing effects were also confirmed in the human cell-based models, which led to the hypothesis that people already taking bumetanide should have lower rates of Alzheimers. To test this, the team pared down electronic health record data sets from more than 5 million people to two groups: adults over 65 who took bumetanide and a matching group who did not take bumetanide. The analysis showed that those who had the genetic risk and took bumetanide had a ~35% to 75% lower prevalence of Alzheimers disease compared to those not taking the drug.

We know that Alzheimers disease will likely require specific types of treatments, perhaps multiple therapies, including some that may target an individuals unique genetic and disease characteristics much like cancer treatments that are available today, said Jean Yuan, M.D., Ph.D., Translational Bioinformatics and Drug Development program director in the NIA Division of Neuroscience. The data in this paper make a good case to conduct a proof-of-concept trial of bumetanide in people with genetic risk.

The research team was led by scientists at Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, the University of California, San Francisco, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City. This group is one of more than 20 teams supported by NIA through a program encouraging the researcher community to seek, through big data approaches, drugs that could potentially be repurposed.

The research was funded by NIH grants R01AG057683, R01AG048017, F31AG058439, R01AG061150, F31AG057150, R21TR001743, and K01ES028047.

NIA leads NIHs systematic planning, development, and implementation of research milestones to achieve the goal of effectively treating and preventing Alzheimers and related dementias. This research is related to Milestone 7.B, Initiate research programs for translational bioinformatics and network pharmacology to support rational drug repositioning and combination therapy from discovery through clinical development.

About the National Institute on Aging (NIA): NIA leads the U.S. federal government effort to conduct and support research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. Learn more about age-related cognitive change and neurodegenerative diseases via NIAs Alzheimer's and related Dementias Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center website. Visit the main NIA website for information about a range of aging topics, in English and Spanish, and stay connected.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

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Precision medicine data dive shows water pill may be viable to test as Alzheimer's treatment - National Institutes of Health

Gene therapy is one of the novel mechanisms of treatment that is attracting several large and small pharma companies. The gene therapies treat a disease by altering or turning off problematic genes and adding genes that help to fight or treat a disease. Scientists have been investigating ways to modify genes or replace faulty genes for the last few decades with a few gene therapies already in the market. Gene therapy is set to become one of the most vital spaces with high prospects in the biotech sector.

These therapies provide the flexibility to develop one-time treatment options for genetic or inherited diseases with limited or no approved therapies available. Moreover, gene-editing can directly affect cells the basic building blocks of living things and may help in developing highly effective therapies.

There are already a few FDA-approved gene therapies targeting different difficult indications. In a historic move, the FDA approved the first gene therapy, Novartis Kymriah, for treating acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2017. This was followed by the FDA approval of two more gene therapies Gileads Yescarta and Roches Luxturna for oncology and eye disorder indications, respectively, in the same year. The FDA approved two new gene therapies, Bristol-Myers Breyanzi and Abecma for treating different cancer indications, earlier in 2021. The majority of approved gene therapies have shown strong sales growth since their approval.

Given the potential of gene therapies to treat complex diseases, the companies developing candidates using gene therapy that are a mix of large and small firms, are in focus. A successful medicine developed by any of these companies can generate annual revenues of $1 billion or more. Here we discuss four biotech stocks with promising gene therapy candidates in their pipeline.

CRISPR Therapeutics CRSP

The company is developing its lead pipeline candidate, CTX001, in collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals in mid-stage studies as a potential treatment for transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease. The gene-editing therapy candidate previously demonstrated a consistent and sustained response to treatment in the given patient population in an ongoing phase I/II study.

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CRISPR Therapeutics is actively seeking collaborations and leveraging its CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing platform to make therapies for hemoglobinopathies, cancer, diabetes and other diseases.

Editas Medicine EDIT

The companys lead pipeline candidate is EDIT-101, which employs CRISPR gene editing to treat LCA10 a rare genetic illness that causes blindness. Editas is currently enrolling in the first pediatric cohort of the phase I/II BRILLIANCE study, which is evaluating EDIT-101 for LCA10. Editas is also pursuing the development of CRISPR candidates for eye diseases other than LCA10 including Usher Syndrome type 2A and recurrent ocular Herpes Simplex Virus type 1.

It is also designing novel medicines for non-malignant hematologic diseases, such as SCD and beta-thalassemia.

Sarepta Therapeutics SRPT

Sareptas lead gene therapy candidate is SRP-9001, an AAV-mediated micro-dystrophin gene therapy. The company initiated a pivotal clinical study earlier this year to evaluate it as a one-time treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients. The promising candidate has also led Roche to sign a collaboration deal with Sarepta. The company plans to seek FDAs approval to start a pivotal study on its other gene therapy candidate, SRP-9003, in 2021 to evaluate it in patients with Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) type 2E. The company has several other pre-clinical and clinical-stage gene therapy candidates targeting additional indications like Rett Syndrome, cardiomyopathy, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy type 1, and multiple sclerosis.

Beam Therapeutics BEAM

The company has two pre-clinical gene editing candidates, BEAM-101 and BEAM-102, in its pipeline that are being developed as potential treatments for SCD. The company plans to file an investigational new drug application to the FDA seeking approval to start a clinical study on BEAM-101 in the second half of 2021.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free reportBeam Therapeutics Inc. (BEAM) : Free Stock Analysis ReportSarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (SRPT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportEditas Medicine, Inc. (EDIT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportCRISPR Therapeutics AG (CRSP) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research

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4 Biotechs to Watch Amid Rising Prominence of Gene Therapies - Yahoo Finance

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL October 15, 2021 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: CRISPR Therapeutics AG CRSP, Editas Medicine, Inc. EDIT, Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. SRPT and Beam Therapeutics Inc. BEAM.

Gene therapy is one of the novel mechanisms of treatment that is attracting several large and small pharma companies. The gene therapies treat a disease by altering or turning off problematic genes and adding genes that help to fight or treat a disease. Scientists have been investigating ways to modify genes or replace faulty genes for the last few decades with a few gene therapies already in the market. Gene therapy is set to become one of the most vital spaces with high prospects in the biotech sector.

These therapies provide the flexibility to develop one-time treatment options for genetic or inherited diseases with limited or no approved therapies available. Moreover, gene-editing can directly affect cells the basic building blocks of living things and may help in developing highly effective therapies.

There are already a few FDA-approved gene therapies targeting different difficult indications. In a historic move, the FDA approved the first gene therapy, Novartis Kymriah, for treating acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2017. This was followed by the FDA approval of two more gene therapies Gileads Yescarta and Roches Luxturna for oncology and eye disorder indications, respectively, in the same year.

The FDA approved two new gene therapies, Bristol-Myers Breyanzi and Abecma for treating different cancer indications, earlier in 2021. The majority of approved gene therapies have shown strong sales growth since their approval.

Story continues

Given the potential of gene therapies to treat complex diseases, the companies developing candidates using gene therapy that are a mix of large and small firms, are in focus. A successful medicine developed by any of these companies can generate annual revenues of $1 billion or more. Here we discuss four biotech stocks with promising gene therapy candidates in their pipeline.

CRISPR Therapeutics

The company is developing its lead pipeline candidate, CTX001, in collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals in mid-stage studies as a potential treatment for transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease. The gene-editing therapy candidate previously demonstrated a consistent and sustained response to treatment in the given patient population in an ongoing phase I/II study.

CRISPR Therapeutics is actively seeking collaborations and leveraging its CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing platform to make therapies for hemoglobinopathies, cancer, diabetes and other diseases.

Editas Medicine

The companys lead pipeline candidate is EDIT-101, which employs CRISPR gene editing to treat LCA10 a rare genetic illness that causes blindness. Editas is currently enrolling in the first pediatric cohort of the phase I/II BRILLIANCE study, which is evaluating EDIT-101 for LCA10. Editas is also pursuing the development of CRISPR candidates for eye diseases other than LCA10 including Usher Syndrome type 2A and recurrent ocular Herpes Simplex Virus type 1.

It is also designing novel medicines for non-malignant hematologic diseases, such as SCD and beta-thalassemia.

Sarepta Therapeutics

Sareptas lead gene therapy candidate is SRP-9001, an AAV-mediated micro-dystrophin gene therapy. The company initiated a pivotal clinical study earlier this year to evaluate it as a one-time treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients. The promising candidate has also led Roche to sign a collaboration deal with Sarepta.

The company plans to seek FDAs approval to start a pivotal study on its other gene therapy candidate, SRP-9003, in 2021 to evaluate it in patients with Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) type 2E. The company has several other pre-clinical and clinical-stage gene therapy candidates targeting additional indications like Rett Syndrome, cardiomyopathy, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy type 1, and multiple sclerosis.

Beam Therapeutics

The company has two pre-clinical gene editing candidates, BEAM-101 and BEAM-102, in its pipeline that are being developed as potential treatments for SCD. The company plans to file an investigational new drug application to the FDA seeking approval to start a clinical study on BEAM-101 in the second half of 2021.

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Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free reportBeam Therapeutics Inc. (BEAM) : Free Stock Analysis ReportSarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (SRPT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportEditas Medicine, Inc. (EDIT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportCRISPR Therapeutics AG (CRSP) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research

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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: CRISPR Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, Sarepta Therapeutics and Beam Therapeutics - Yahoo Finance

Isolating a risk factor for Alzheimers disease

The federally funded research focused its analysis on a specific population: those with a genetic variant known as APOE4. While scientists dont fully understand what causes Alzheimers disease, they do know some people are more likely than others to develop it based on their genetic makeup.

The APOE gene in particular is involved in making a protein that helps carry cholesterol and other types of fat in the bloodstream. It comes in at least three different variations, and one of them, called APOE4, increases a persons risk for Alzheimers. While not everyone who carries APOE4 gets Alzheimers, an estimated 40 to 65 percent of those diagnosed with the disease have at least one copy of the gene variation (also called an allele), according to the Alzheimers Association.

For the study, the team of researchers first examined changes that take place over time in brain tissue samples of people with APOE4. Then they combed through a database of nearly 1,300 federally approved drugs in search of candidates to potentially reverse such gene-related changes. Bumetanide, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decades ago, emerged as the strongest contender.

When the research team gave bumetanide to mice that were engineered to have two copies of the human APOE4 gene, they found that the drug helped reduce deficits in learning and memory. The drugs counteracting effects were also seen in neurons derived from skin cells of Alzheimers patients carrying the APOE4 gene.

Data from thousands of health records gave the researchers even more confidence in bumetanides potential effect on Alzheimers disease, says study coauthor Yadong Huang, M.D., director of the Center for Translational Advancement at Gladstone Institutes and a professor of neurology and pathology at the University of California, San Francisco. An analysis showed that adults 65 and older who took bumetanide were 35 to 75 percent less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimers disease than those who took another diuretic.

Our next step, of course, will [be to] move to the real clinical trial to test the efficacy of bumetanide directly in Alzheimer's patients, says Huang, who is hopeful that these trials could start as early as next year.

As theyre based on a specific at-risk population, the teams findings lend support to a treatment approach called precision medicine, which has grown increasingly popular inAlzheimers research. It veers from a one-size-fits-all model and considers individual differences in environment, lifestyle and genetics indrug development and treatment decisions.

The traditional drug development approach for Alzheimers disease has been focusing on one protein, one gene or one cellular pathway, Huang says. The assumption for many years has been that we may find a magic bullet that will fit every Alzheimer's disease patient.

Now, experts increasingly say the answer to ending Alzheimers probably doesnt lie in a single drug or therapy. Tackling the disease will likely require specific types of treatments, perhaps multiple therapies, including some that may target an individuals unique genetic and disease characteristics much like cancer treatments that are available today, Jean Yuan, M.D., a program director in the NIAs Division of Neuroscience, said in a statement.

A major reason: The disease cant be pinned to one cause, at least in most people. Experts say it's likely due to a combination of age-related changes in the brain, along with genetic, environmental andlifestyle factors.

If you look at Alzheimer's-disease patients on the surface, they all have dementia, but their underlying molecular or cellular mechanisms might not be exactly the same, Huang says. Breaking down the patient population into subgroups, such as genetic risk, could be a more effective way to study potential treatments, he argues.

Theres also a plus to exploring new uses for old drugs that already have a proven track record for safety a strategy known as drug repurposing. Finding one that works could cut years off the time it typically takes to get a treatment from clinical trials to patient use.

Combining so-called precision medicine with drug repurposing and with real-world data analysis will help us dramatically speed up drug development targeting those aging-related complex diseases, Huang says.

So far only a handful of drugs have been approved by the FDA for Alzheimers disease, and most just help to briefly manage symptoms of the illness, which afflicts more than 6 million Americans. Earlier this year, the agencygranted approvalto a drug the first of its kind that may slow the progression of the disease. However, the medication hasnt yet been proven to alter symptoms or outcomes of Alzheimers, such as the advancement of cognitive decline and dementia, according to the NIA.

Rachel Nania writes about health care and health policy for AARP. Previously she was a reporter and editor for WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C. A recipient of a Gracie Award and a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, she also participated in a dementia fellowship with the National Press Foundation.

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Could an Old Drug Be a New Alzheimers Treatment? - AARP

Gene therapy represents a new generation of medicine that shows great promise in the fight against rare genetic diseases. The potential long-term transformative benefits could reduce, or even eliminate the ongoing costs of supporting patients and managing diseases. In this conversation, thought leaders will discuss the promise of gene therapy, how policy makers are responding, and what obstacles stand in the way of wide-spread gene therapy treatments.

Date: Thursday, Oct. 21st, 2021

Time: 12:00 1:00pm PDT

Panelists:

Jennifer Hodgeis the US Rare Neurology Medical Team Lead at Pfizer. Over the past 9 years, she has contributed in roles of increasing responsibility across Early Pipeline/Gene Therapy, Sickle Cell Disease, Hemophilia and I&I where she played an important role in the US & EU launches of XELJANZ for Rheumatoid arthritis. She received her PhD in Immunology and completed two Post-Doctoral Fellowships at Harvard Medical School & the Yale University School of Medicine.

Carolina Sommer is the Founder of the Northwest Rare Disease Coalition, Founder of the Seattle Rare Disease Fair, Co-Founder of the ABC Kind Program, and Author of the Lucys Journey books. She is also a member of the Rare Disease Access Working Group with EveryLife Foundation, We Work for Health, Voters for Cures, and the WA Health Access Network.

Ryan Fischer serves as the Chief Advocacy Officer for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy and has been with the organization for 16 years. Within PPMD, Ryan oversees patient advocacy, patient-focused drug development initiatives including patient-preference research, and the strategic development of the largest patient reported registry in Duchenne developed by PPMD, The Duchenne Registry.

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5 Slides: Gene therapy and the promise for rare disease - State of Reform - State of Reform

Harvard University and National Resilience, Inc. (Resilience), a manufacturing and technology company, have established a five-year R&D alliance with a $30 million commitment from Resilience directed toward the development of complex medicines, including biologics, vaccines, nucleic acids, and cell and gene therapies.

Under the alliance agreement coordinated by Harvards Office of Technology Development (OTD), Resilience will fund faculty-initiated research focused on certain novel therapeutic and biomanufacturing technologies pioneered in University labs. The alliance also anticipates that these Harvard innovations may be commercially advanced by new companies formed by Resilience expressly to drive these technologies into clinical development and commercialization.

An initial technology platform has already been identified for incubation under the alliance, with promising applications in skeletal muscle disorders. In the Harvard lab of Lee Rubin, professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, researchers have developed a means to culture millions of cells in vitro that behave like skeletal muscle stem cells (satellite cells), retaining their regenerative potential, for use in possible cell therapies. Resilience is now funding the labs continuing work on the platform, aiming to further validate it, in a project led by staff scientist Feodor Price.

Meanwhile, Resilience has formed an entity called Circle Therapeutics, anticipating that Circle may carry the technology forward under license.

For six decades since the discovery of the satellite cell, it has not been possible to expand therapeutic numbers of satellite cells in vitro, until we made real headway on it at Harvard, said Rubin. Were truly excited for the possible therapeutic impact of our innovations.

Our mission at Resilience is to make a new generation of complex medicines, such as curative gene therapies, life-saving vaccines and immune-system-boosting cell therapies, more accessible to people in need, said Rahul Singhvi, chief executive officer of Resilience. Current biomanufacturing processes pose significant hurdles to making these medicines quickly, and at scale, which is why we are excited to work with researchers at Harvard to identify and develop the technologies needed to make this future a reality.

The Rubin Labs platform to expand and maintain in vitro-derived satellite cells could lead to transformative cell therapies, said Vivian Berlin, executive director, HMS, at Harvard OTD, who leads OTDs Corporate Alliances team. With prior support from the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator, the team has compellingly demonstrated the clinical relevance of this work. Now with Resiliences focused funding and experience in the development of complex medicines, we hope to set it on a clear path toward benefiting patients.

Going forward, Resilience and Harvard will jointly issue a call for proposals to identify additional research projects to be funded at Harvard. Under the terms of the alliance, Resilience will receive an option to license technologies arising from funded projects.

This research alliance with Resilience will help support biomedical innovation at Harvard, said Isaac Kohlberg, Harvards chief technology development officer and senior associate provost. Collaborating to both advance Harvard science and place arising technologies with dedicated new ventures, we can provide yet another valuable source of support and industry expertise to translational biomedical researchers across Harvards Schools as they seek to impact human health for the better.

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Harvard's R&D alliance with Resilience to advance manufacture of complex medicines - Harvard Gazette

Jim Streiff is a military veteran who received a MyChart message one day from Sanford Health that notified him of an opportunity to participate in a genetic screening test.

A test offered through Sanford Imagenetics costs $49, a fee that is waived for veterans like Streiff. The test can potentially add insight into how people respond to certain medications, in addition to assessing risk for certain genetic diseases.

Streiff explained the screening to his family and then scheduled the test, which amounted to a blood draw and a conversation with a Sanford geneticist.

I figured they wanted me to get the test because I was either the descendant of kings or goat thieves, Streiff joked.

Get started: Genetic testing at Sanford Health

More seriously, he thought about his own health issues after receiving the email. Streiff is diabetic and also deals with low platelet counts in his blood. It would be beneficial, he decided, to participate in the screening because it could give providers more information in prescribing his medications through pharmacogenomics, which is the study of your genes and your drug response.

Though Streiff would eventually discover he did not need to alter his medicines, it is very common for those taking the test to find out their genes are indeed a factor in medication effectiveness.

The decision to get the screening remained a life-altering decision nevertheless.

I was able to sit down with a geneticist and we discussed what they found, Streiff said. They discovered I had Lynch syndrome, which Id never heard of. Its a defect in one of the genes that gets passed down from generation to generation.

Lynch syndrome makes people more susceptible to certain types of cancer. In Streiffs case, it helped explain some of his familys health issues. His father had six siblings die of the kinds of cancer where this syndrome could be a possible contributing factor. In addition, he lost a first cousin to cancer.

Streiff was a perfect patient for a genetic test designed to screen or identify potential risk that he might be predisposed to because he was unaware of Lynch syndrome, says Alexander Van Gerrevink, Imagenetics education program specialist. He said most people who take the test do not discover they have an actionable result such as genetic cancer or heart conditions.

After notifying all his first cousins of his screening results, Streiff went to work on making sure his second cousins were also aware. Some of them had the same trait as well. The information reached relatives, some of them distant relatives, from all over the country.

It has changed the whole mindset of my family, Streiff said. My children are getting certain procedures or tests more often and earlier in life than they would otherwise because they understand there is a greater risk. My grandchildren will do the same when theyre old enough. My cousins are also talking to their geneticists and getting tested to see if this gene runs through their families. It has changed a lot of lives just doing this one simple test.

Streiff has absorbed enough of the science behind his screening to be able to explain the basics to others who do not have a medical background and know little about the benefits of genetic testing. He can thank the Imagenetics staff for that.

They did a great job of explaining it when I met with them, Streiff said. My screening results were communicated in a very straightforward way that will make it easy to make future decisions.

The result is that he can have conversations with friends about how his decision helped him and his family.

People should not be afraid to participate, Streiff said. Its a very simple process and it can supply you with a tremendous amount of information. The people helping you are very knowledgeable and very caring. It made me think about wishing Id had this information 10 or 20 years ago. I think some of my aunts and uncles and cousins who are gone would still be here today.

Posted In Cancer, Genetics, Internal Medicine, Veterans

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Genetic screening test leads to discovery of a family trait - Sanford Health News

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Generation Bio Co. (Nasdaq: GBIO), a biotechnology company innovating genetic medicines for people living with rare and prevalent diseases, today announced an oral presentation at the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) Annual Virtual Congress taking place October 19-22. The presentation will highlight preclinical advances from the companys retina therapeutic area.

We are excited to share our preclinical data demonstrating broad access to key cell types with our lipid nanoparticle developed for the retina, said Matthew Stanton, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Generation Bio. Many inherited retinal diseases remain out of reach for viral-based gene therapies due to limited cargo capacity. We believe our non-viral delivery technology could overcome this barrier and expand the potential of our genetic medicine platform to treat more diseases.

The presentation will be streamed online for registered attendees on October 22, and a recording of the presentation will be made available for attendees for 30 days following the event.

Generation Bio will present:

About Generation BioGeneration Bio is innovating genetic medicines to provide durable, redosable treatments for people living with rare and prevalent diseases. The companys non-viral genetic medicine platform incorporates a novel DNA construct called closed-ended DNA, or ceDNA; a unique cell-targeted lipid nanoparticle delivery system, or ctLNP; and a highly scalable capsid-free manufacturing process that uses proprietary cell-free rapid enzymatic synthesis, or RES, to produce ceDNA. The platform is designed to enable multi-year durability from a single dose, to deliver large genetic payloads, including multiple genes, to specific tissues, and to allow titration and redosing to adjust or extend expression levels in each patient. RES has the potential to expand Generation Bios manufacturing scale to hundreds of millions of doses to support its mission to extend the reach of genetic medicine to more people, living with more diseases, around the world.

For more information, please visit http://www.generationbio.com.

Contacts:

InvestorsMaren KillackeyGeneration Bio541-646-2420mkillackey@generationbio.com

MediaAlicia WebbGeneration Bio847-254-4275awebb@generationbio.com

Lisa RaffenspergerTen Bridge Communications617-903-8783lisa@tenbridgecommunications.com

Excerpt from:
Generation Bio to Present at European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy 2021 Annual Virtual Congress - StreetInsider.com

image:By creating a genome-proteome map scientists have uncovered hundreds of novel connections between different human diseases. view more

Credit: Omicscience https://www.omicscience.org/. This figure has been generated with BioRender.com.

Hundreds of connections between different human diseases have been uncovered through their shared origin in our genome by an international research team led by scientists from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, challenging the categorisation of diseases by organ, symptoms, or clinical speciality.

A new study published in Science today generated data on thousands of proteins circulating in our blood and combined this with genetic data to produce a map showing how genetic differences that affect these proteins link together seemingly diverse as well as related diseases.

Proteins are essential functional units of the human body that are composed of amino acids and coded for by our genes. Malfunctions of proteins cause diseases across most medical specialties and organ systems, and proteins are also the most common target of drugs that exist today.

The findings published today help explain why seemingly unrelated symptoms can occur at the same time in patients and suggest that we should reconsider how diverse diseases can be caused by the same underlying protein or mechanism. Where a protein is a drug target, this information can point to new strategies for treating a variety of conditions, as well as minimising adverse effects.

In the study using blood samples from over 10,000 participants from the Fenland study, the team led by senior author Dr Claudia Langenberg at the MRCEpidemiology Unit and Berlin Institute of Health at Charit Universittsmedizin, Germany, demonstrated that natural variation in 2,500 regions of the human genome is very robustly associated with differences in abundance or function of 5,000 proteins circulating in the blood.

This approach addresses an important bottleneck in the translation of basic science to clinically actionable insights. While large scale studies of the human genome have identified many thousands of variants in our DNA sequence that are associated with disease, underlying mechanisms remain often poorly understood due to uncertainties in mapping those variants to genes. By linking such disease-related DNA variations to the abundance or function of an encoded protein, the team produced strong evidence for which genes are involved, and identified novel mechanisms by which proteins mediate genetic risk into disease onset.

For example, multiple genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have linked a region of the human genome known as KAT8 with Alzheimers disease but failed to identify which gene in this region was involved. By combining data on both proteins and genes the team was able to identify a gene in the KAT8 region named PRSS8, which codes for the protein prostasin, as a novel candidate gene in Alzheimers disease. Similarly, they identified a novel risk gene for endometrial cancer (RSPO3).

The authors used these new insights to systematically test which of these protein-encoding genes affected a large range of diseases. They discovered more than 1,800 examples in which more than one disease was driven by variations in an individual gene and its protein products. What emerged was a network-like structure of human diseases, because many of the genes connected a range of seemingly diverse as well as related conditions in different tissues. This provides strong evidence that the respective protein is the origin, and points to new potential strategies for treatment.

Dr Langenberg explained:

An extreme example we discovered of how one protein can be connected to several diseases is the protein Fibulin-3, which we connected to 37 conditions, including hypermobility, hernias, varicose veins, and a lower risk of carpal tunnel syndrome. A likely explanation is atypical formation of elastic fibres covering our organs and joints, leading to differences in elasticity of soft and connective tissues. This is also in line with features that others have observed in mice where this gene was deleted.

Dr Maik Pietzner, a researcher at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and co-lead author of the study, added:

Using our genome as the basis was key to the success of this study. Because we know that most of the proteins detected in blood have their origin in cells from other tissues, we integrated different biological layers, like gene expression, to enable us to traceproteins back to disease-relevant tissues. For example, we found that higher activity of the enzyme bile salt sulfotransferase was associated with an increased risk of gall stones through a liver specific mechanism. We linked around 900 proteins to their tissue of origin in this way.

In collaboration with colleagues at the Helmholtz Centre in Munich, Germany, the authors have developed a bespoke web application (www.omicscience.org) to enable immediate dissemination of the results, and allow researchers worldwide to dive deeply into information on genes, proteins and diseases they are most interested in.

Dr Eleanor Wheeler, also at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and co-lead author of the study, concluded:

For most genomic regions associated with disease risk, the underlying causal gene and mechanism are not known. Our work demonstrates the distinctive value of proteins to zoom in on the causal gene for a disease and helps us to understand the mechanism through which genetic variation can cause disease. We envisage that the large amount of information we are sharing with the scientific community will help ongoing and emerging efforts to connect genes to diseases more directly via the encoded protein, thus facilitating accelerated identification of drug targets.

Reference

Pietzner M., Wheeler E., et al. Mapping the proteo-genomic convergence of human diseases. Science 2021;14 Oct 2021; DOI:10.1126/science.abj1541

ENDS

About the MRC Epidemiology Unit

The MRC Epidemiology Unit is a department at the University of Cambridge. It is working to improve the health of people in the UK and around the world.

Obesity, type 2 diabetes and related metabolic disorders present a major and growing global public health challenge. These disorders result from a complex interplay between genetic, developmental, behavioural and environmental factors that operate throughout life. The mission of the Unit is to investigate the individual and combined effects of these factors and to develop and evaluate strategies to prevent these diseases and their consequences. http://www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk

About the University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is one of the worlds top ten leading universities, with a rich history of radical thinking dating back to 1209. Its mission is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

The University comprises 31 autonomous Colleges and 150 departments, faculties and institutions. Its 24,450 student body includes more than 9,000 international students from 147 countries. In 2020, 70.6% of its new undergraduate students were from state schools and 21.6% from economically disadvantaged areas.

Cambridge research spans almost every discipline, from science, technology, engineering and medicine through to the arts, humanities and social sciences, with multi-disciplinary teams working to address major global challenges. Its researchers provide academic leadership, develop strategic partnerships and collaborate with colleagues worldwide.

The University sits at the heart of the Cambridge cluster, in which more than 5,300 knowledge-intensive firms employ more than 67,000 people and generate 18 billion in turnover. Cambridge has the highest number of patent applications per 100,000 residents in the UK.

http://www.cam.ac.uk

About the Medical Research Council

The Medical Research Council is at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. Founded in 1913 to tackle tuberculosis, the MRC now invests taxpayers money in some of the best medical research in the world across every area of health. Thirty-three MRC-funded researchers have won Nobel prizes in a wide range of disciplines, and MRC scientists have been behind such diverse discoveries as vitamins, the structure of DNA and the link between smoking and cancer, as well as achievements such as pioneering the use of randomised controlled trials, the invention of MRI scanning, and the development of a group of antibodies used in the making of some of the most successful drugs ever developed. Today, MRC-funded scientists tackle some of the greatest health problems facing humanity in the 21st century, from the rising tide of chronic diseases associated with ageing to the threats posed by rapidly mutating micro-organisms. The Medical Research Council is part of UK Research and Innovation. https://mrc.ukri.org/

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Mapping the proteo-genomic convergence of human diseases

14-Oct-2021

Robert A. Scott and Adrian Cortes are current employees and/or stockholders of GlaxoSmithKline. ERG receives an honorarium from the journal Circulation Research of the American Heart Association as a member of the Editorial Board. Stephen O'Rahilly has received remuneration for consultancy services provided to Pfizer Inc, Astra Zeneca, ERX Pharmaceuticals, GSK, Third Rock Ventures and LG Life Sciences. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

More:
Filling the gaps: connecting genes to diseases through proteins - EurekAlert